Three questions for Tony Smith

San Francisco schools Deputy Superintendent Tony Smith will take the helm of the financially troubled Oakland schools, the district's first leader since a 2003 state takeover.

San Francisco schools Deputy Superintendent Tony Smith will take the helm of the financially troubled Oakland schools, the district's first leader since a 2003 state takeover.

Photo: OUSD

Photo: OUSD

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San Francisco schools Deputy Superintendent Tony Smith will take the helm of the financially troubled Oakland schools, the district's first leader since a 2003 state takeover.

San Francisco schools Deputy Superintendent Tony Smith will take the helm of the financially troubled Oakland schools, the district's first leader since a 2003 state takeover.

Photo: OUSD

Three questions for Tony Smith

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Incoming Oakland schools Superintendent Tony Smith can expect to inherit a district with a horrific reputation for institutional and fiscal dysfunction. He will be the first person to hold the job since Sacramento took over the district in 2003 after a financial meltdown, which resulted in a $100 million state loan. Yet, he said the Oakland post is the only thing that could have lured him away from his current job as deputy superintendent in San Francisco. He spoke last week with education reporter Jill Tucker about his new job.

Q:Oakland has been a hornet's nest of financial instability, political chaos and community discord. What do you bring to the table?A: I bring a perspective that districts are necessary - but not sufficient - to address the issues that are really underlying the larger pieces that you talked about: the financial instability, the political chaos, all of the discord. Those are not district specific issues, they are citywide issues. I have a perspective and, now, experience in two previous districts where (there was a) communitywide responsibility to interrupt the historic oppression that goes beyond just the school district. I have the kinds of connections necessary to speak deeply to districtwide issues and also the local political connections and relationships to really do citywide work.

Q:What do you think will be your biggest challenge?A: There's been six years of state administration, and people are very hungry to get going and get local control back. I think we have to help people understand this is not going to be a marathon. It's going to be an ultra-marathon. There is so much energy and excitement right now. ... I want to help organize that energy for the long haul.

Q:You were the football team captain at Cal while simultaneously writing your senior thesis on Emily Dickinson. Can you explain that combination?A: For me it made total sense. I was writing about stuff I cared deeply about and Emily Dickinson's poetry, to me as a young person, actually gave me a way to communicate and express myself, and football was the same thing. It was a place I felt most comfortable ... and learned discipline. And to be a good, thoughtful writer requires discipline and practice. For me they were very similar.